TAG: family
Screen time for small kids: education or entertainment?
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on May 8, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Rachel Edmondson I want to start this post with a promise and a disclaimer. First, I promise I am not going to tell you to never ever let your kids watch TV, play a video game, or use a tablet. Second, I’m also not going to give you concrete answers on how you should […]
Tags: 3 Cs of media use, babies, baby, Child, Content, Context, early learning, education, educational, entertainment, family, kids, media, media use, parenting, parents, preschooler, preschoolers, screen time, tablet, toddler, toddlers, tv, video game, young learners
Anticipation and inspiration: Getting ready for spring gardening
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole It’s nearly Go Time, my gardening friends! We’ve almost made it through the winter, through the snow and the ice, through the below-freezing temperatures. We have watched last summer’s plants freeze and die back, disappear under a blanket of snow, and get stomped on (along with other indecencies) by neighborhood cats. We […]
Tags: adults, composting, composting with worms, DIY, events, family, food, garden, gardening, health, hobbies, kids, Master Gardeners, plant sales, plant starter, plant starter exchange, plant starts, pruning, seed libraries, seeds, teens, tweens, urban farming, weeding, worms, youth
Beat cabin fever with these creative and (mostly) free activities
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on February 20, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson If your family is like mine, then February is peak cabin fever season. While we still bundle up and go outside occasionally, we don’t last long when the weather is so chilly. This leaves a lot of time spent inside trying to keep ourselves entertained. While we love reading books, watching movies, […]
Tags: activities, baking, blanket fort, cabin fever, cookbooks, cooking, crafts, dance, decorate eggs, family, flashlight tag, food, hobbies, hoopla, indoor, indoor fort, kids, library, movies, music, parents, recycling, STEM, tag, teens, tweens, upcycling, young learners
Picture books for frosty days
Posted in Parents and Teachers on January 2, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Sheri Boggs Winter is just not my thing. I’m too clumsy to ski. It’s too cold to enjoy being outside. And I get too dispirited by the short days to remember to take my vitamin D. I pretty much just grit my teeth, put on my stupid tights (and gloves, and boots, and hat, […]
Tags: book list, booklists, books, family, kids, parents, picture books, reading, winter, young learners
Social-emotional picture books to help your kids get through the holidays
Posted in Parents and Teachers on December 12, 2017 at 6:00 am
by Rachel Edmondson The holiday season is often fraught with emotions. Many adults find themselves stressed, excited, joyous, and sad—sometimes all in the same day! It’s helpful to remember that the children in our lives are often dealing with the same strong emotions. While having a vacation from school, receiving gifts, attending celebrations […]
Tags: booklists, books, children, children's books, early learners, early learning, early literacy, emotional, emotions, family, feelings, health, holiday season, holidays, kids, parents, picture books, preschoolers, reading, social-emotional, social-emotional skills, social-emotional tools, toddlers, young learners
Holiday Gifts for Expectant Mothers
Posted in Explore and Discover on December 5, 2017 at 6:00 am
By Stefani Miller “What do you want for Christmas?” I’ve never had trouble answering that question in the past. There’s always been a thing or two on my list. But as a newly expectant mother I find myself, for the first time, unable to answer. Before I became pregnant, I could ask for things that […]
Tags: baby, expectant mothers, family, gift giving, gift ideas, health, holiday gift guide, holiday gifts, kids, new baby, new mom, parenting, parents, pregnancy, pregnant, young learners
Big animals, big news: Connect with Washington wildlife at your local library
Posted in Explore and Discover on November 30, 2017 at 6:00 am
By Nathaniel Youmans 2017 has been quite a big year for Washington’s large wildlife. The gray wolf population in the northeast part of the state continues to rebound by an annual growth rate of nearly 30%, with the two newest established packs recognized in a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife survey conducted late last […]
Tags: adults, animal conservation, booklists, books, Canada lynx, community, conservation, education, family, gray wolves, human population growth, kids, lynx, nature, nonfiction, nonfiction books, parents, reading, teens, tweens, urban expansion, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, wilderness, wildlife, wolf, wolves, young learners
Audiobooks: Are they reading or cheating?
Posted in Explore and Discover on November 22, 2017 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole Readers quickly divide into two groups when it comes to audiobooks: those who consider listening to audiobooks as reading and those who don’t (“it’s cheating!”). On which side do you fall? I am a lifelong member of the pro-audiobook club. I’ve been listening to books for as long as I can remember. […]
Tags: adults, audiobooks, authors, booklists, books, digital library, family, hoopla, kids, overdrive, parents, teens, tweens, YA
Reading with children: Identity, voices, and shared memories
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on October 31, 2017 at 6:00 am
by Gwendolyn Haley I hear my grandfather’s voice when I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. He did not read to me regularly. We lived very far away from him and only saw those grandparents once or twice a year. But when he read that story to me, it was magical. I have read the […]
Tags: authors, Beverly Cleary, books, Charlotte's Web, children's books, E. B. White, family, kids, Ludwig Bemelmans, parents, Peter Rabit, Ramona, reading, reading together, young learners
Ever louder bumps in the night: Scares for all ages
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 24, 2017 at 6:00 am
by Susan Goertz As a chill grips the autumn air and the chlorophyll leaches from the leaves, my mind turns toward the spooky. Nothing to get your heart racing and the cold sweat pouring on a crisp night like a good scary story. Horror is a very broad genre. There are a lot of options […]
Tags: adults, authors, booklists, books, digital library, family, Frankenstein, frightening, ghosts, Halloween, holidays, hoopla, horror, kids, monsters, movies, music, parents, reading, scary books, scarymovies, spooktacular, spooky, spooky stories, spooky tales, tweens, witches, YA, young learners
